Piazza del Chenil a Marly, effetto neve

Sisley moved out to the village of Marly-le-Roi, west of Paris, in 1875, and the two winters that followed were unusually hard, with long frosts and heavy snow. He went out into it. This is the village square, the old Place du Chenil, under fresh snowfall, painted on the spot with cold fingers in the winter of 1876. He was among the Impressionists most drawn to snow, and here he tints it faintly blue in the shadows and loads the bare branches with white. A couple of small figures lean into the weather along a wall. The whole picture is barely larger than a folded newspaper, quickly caught before the light and the snow could change.